To be updated

To be updated

To be updated

To be updated July 2014

Arriving in Pnomh Penh I didn’t know how I was going to get to Mad Monkey Hostel as we were being dropped off at the bus store.  Luckily a tuk tuk driver came up to me and asked if I needed a ride.  After negotiating on a price we headed off and arrived at Mad Monkey.  Lee, my driver, and I arranged for him to take me around tomorrow to the Killing Fields and the S21 Museum.  I was able to check in early was and was walked over to the restaurant with the main hostel and bar upstairs.  I had lunch in the resto downstairs, beans on toast and eggs, and then set out for the day on my own walking tour.  I walked towards the Mekong Riverfront and saw the Independence Memorial, Silver Pagoda, the waterfront and the restaurants lining it (but couldn’t find FCC), and Wat Phnom.  Had dinner at Happy Herb Pizza, which I thought was just recommended by the guidebooks, but it turns out it was recommended because some of their pizzas are cooked with pot in the sauce!  I didn’t get on the the ‘Happy Happy’ pizzas, but a large group of Oz teens came in and all ordered the special.  I walked up and down the riverfront a few times, and ended up going on a $5 river cruise which was less than enthusiastic, lasting only 45 minutes and just going in a big circle, driving close to machinery churning up river bottom- spraying it in your face).  After the cruise I visited the night market which was a fabulous difference from all the other markets selling the same old tourist gifts.  I ended the night back at the hostel meeting Emilie from Denmark and finding out my roving dinner tour was cancelled.

I arranged with Emilie that we would do the Killing Fields and S21 Prison Museum together with Lee, and after an omelet breakfast we were off.  I was interested to learn that no one was actually killed there, but many people did die of starvation, etc.  Some of the cells still had blood stains in them, all too real.  At the end of your visit one of the seven survivors was selling books- it felt like he was on display though for tourists.  Driving to the Killing Fields, Lee was kind enough to stop for face masks for us as it was so dusty.  We looked like Bane from Batman.  It was nice that an audio guide was included in the visit.  Walking around there are mass graves where bones were still surfacing through the dirt which was not fake for tourists.

After the tour we had Lee drop us off at the riverfront where we finally found FCC and I had the best Caiperhina since Brazil.  Walked down through the restaurants and found one where I had Khmer noodles.  On our way back we found a Dairy Queen and obviously I had to enjoy a blizzard 🙂  After getting back to the hostel I headed up to the bar and had some beverages with Emilie.  We then went to Boat Noodle- the best local resto ever!  A full feast of Spring Rolls, Chicken Soup, a Curry, and drinks cost $11.  It was recommended by a tuk tuk driver to one of our roommates the night before.  We were hooked!  Back to bed as I wasn’t feeling well still and Emilie was even sicker than me!

My final day started at 4:40am with me trying to register for my courses on Emilie’ laptop in Danish and making a $96 phone call to UNSW which never got answered.  I ended up just registering for my courses on my phone which worked fine.  I had to be up 45 minutes anyway so I didn’t get back to sleep.  I headed down the street to the Blue Pumpkin for breakfast, which was the meeting point for my behind the scenes Wildlife Alliance Tour, which rescued animals from illegal animal trade.  Only two other girls were on the tour which was nice, and on our way we stopped at  roadside market for some bananas and longon berries for the monkeys.  We pulled into the park and I looked out my window and saw an elephant next to the car!  It was Lucky.  We got to go on a morning walk and touch and take photos with her.  We walked back to her enclosure and saw the other elephants and got a shit I was wearing painted by her!  So talented!  We spent the afternoon diving around the park visiting other animals including tigers, monkeys, etc.  At the end we got to see baby animals and went into an enclosure with four baby Macaques where we fed them the berries.  They were jumping on us like crazy, pulling our hair, etc.  I got punched in the eye by one as it jumped on me haha!  I thought I might get rabies, but got the all clear.  After returning to PP Emile, another roommate and I went to Boat Noodle again where I had a curry.  I packed up that night before my 5am wakeup!  Looking back I didn’t get to sleep in very much at all haha!  I was picked up by Lee in the morning and dropped off at the airport for my 18 hours of flying back to Perth!

Mad Monkey Hostel was in a good location but there wasn’t a common area besides the restaurant to sit in.  I missed seeing the Central Market (although I hear it’s the same stuff), some restaurant recommendations, and the Flicks movie theater.

Arriving in Sihanoukville I was expecting to just grab a taxi or tuk tuk to Sea Garden Bungalows, but apparently on a shuttle bus was allowed to drop off tourists.  So I paid the $6 and hopped on.  The bus was taking it’s time, and I was hoping to get to my bungalow before sunset, but it seemed like I might miss it this night.  I was dropped off in town and was made to get a tuk tuk to my accommodation as it was too far at Otres beach to  be dropped off at.  I arrived at Sea Garden and chose a second story bungalow right on the front of the beach overlooking the water.  It was a wooden bungalow with just a bed, but that’s all I needed (and the mosquito net!).  Where I was staying was empty that night, so I headed next door to Pappa Pippo for some fresh homemade pasta, mai tais, and some malibu and pineapple juices.  Unfortunately I didn’t sleep too well that night, I think my body was adjusting to the different bacterias in the foods, so I had to get up a few times that night.  I took some immodium and my issue cleared up in a few days.

The next morning I had a full breakfast on the beach and spoke to the UK owner, Steve, about the threat of hotel resort development in the area.  It was eye opening to me that you can lease or buy the land, but not the property on it.  The government can just come in when it wants and build a resort where the bungalows are, and you can ‘own’ that part of the resort on your land…it’s the wild west out there.  During breakfast I had a friend come visit me as well, Charlie the puppy.  Quite cute, he wasn’t all too keen to play in the water and would puppy play with the tide.

After breakfast I went for a walk in both directions to check out the rest of Otres beach.  The whole beach stretch had the chilled out, laid back vibe.  I thought I might be able to walk to check out Serendipity beach, but was blocked off.  Not too fussed though, the ‘party town’ area wasn’t really on my list for this trip.  I spent the afternoon lounging on a sun bed, having tropical drinks, swimming in bath-tub warm water, and literally doing nothing.  It was fabulous.  I got a message from Jenni that she was coming in that night, and we made plans to meet up!

Jenni arrived around 7:30 and we checked her into Mushroom Point Hostel which looked much nicer than the hostelworld reviews.  We went and walked along the beach and found a spot for dinner where we shared a bottle of wine and had grilled barracuda.  On the way back to the bungalows I looked for phosphorescent plankton but it wasn’t glowing that night.

I woke up at 6:30 the next morning for my 7:30am Ibis bus trip to Phnom Penh, and was getting ready to go when Steve told me I was wrongly charged for my room and I owed another $36 dollars.  It ended up being about $27 a night, and while having my own room on the beach was nice, I think next time I would stay at a hostel, especially traveling by myself.  I paid Steve and said goodbye to him and his lovely Cambodian wife, who gave me some bananas and a bottle of water for my trip which was lovely.  On my way to the tuk tuk Charlie showed up again and was following me.  He didn’t want me to leave!  If I was there again, I would stay a few more days and head out to some of the deserted islands and maybe check out the snorkeling.  Also to check out Serendipity Beach just to check it out.

Well, it’s been two years since I last posted and a lot has changed.  I’ve been living in Australia, my sister had a baby, my best friend got married, recently became a single woman again, and will soon be moving to Sydney to attend a Masters program.  Needless to say I haven’t traveled too much.  I do have to admit shamefully that I didn’t finish updating my world trip posts, leaving out some cities in Spain, and France.  I have also been to Bali for a week for a wedding in 2011.  Besides that, just a trip back to the US and a bit around in WA locally here.  I hope to update this blog much more now that I’ve got the traveling bug again!

10 days off of work + a flight sale from Perth = an amazing trip to CAMBODIA!  I do want to say that I was sick on flight over and spent half a day in Kuala Lumpur, only seeing the Patronas Towers and not getting a very safe or good first impression of mainland Malaysia, but I’m willing to give it another shot.

First stop: Siem Reap.

I woke up in Kuala Lumpur and took an early taxi ride to the AirAsia LCCT, which was sheer madness fo an airport.  I couldn’t get on that plane soon enough!  Arriving at the airport in Siem Reap was like arriving at a tropical resort.  Unfortunately the customs officials weren’t as beautiful as their building, rudely pointing at a piece of paper telling us we needed it to go through immigration.  Unfortunately the airline didn’t hand out the forms so about 150 people were standing around for 30 minutes waiting to get into the country.  I couldn’t help but feel like Tom Hanks in The Terminal for half an hour.

From there, however, things only got better.  I’m going to do this in bullet point by day, as my scribbled notes take up far too much to type up or read for all of you readers, so here we go:

• I had my first Tuk tuk ride from the airport to Siem Reap Hostel.  The hostel was fabulous- swimming pool, friendly staff, yoga and pilates classes, movie theater, etc.
• I couldn’t check in for 6 hours as I got there at about 8 am, so I walked about 5minutes across a river to the main town area.  Here I went to the Old Market- filled with souvenirs, produce, meats, etc.  I bought two shits and took some photos.  I then went across the street to have lunch at the Khmer Kitchen which I read a recommendation about.  I had the Khmer curry, lemongrass tea, and some Khmer dumplings.  the curry was average but the other items were delicious.  I then walked along trying to find a fabricated discount apple store (with hopes of buying a cheap laptop) but no luck.  So, full of dismay, I went an got an hour long Swedish massage- as you do.  $28 and it was basically at the top spa, so I can’t complain!  Then I walked along the river and wandered into a Buddist Temple, and I’m pretty sure I got conned out of $10 for ‘educational’ purposes for the monks there…oh well.
• I was finally able to check in and met some other girls in my dorm room- Cliona, Lauren (who lives in Sydney), and Jenni.  We all got along great and decided to go get dinner out on Pub Street where I had my first fish amok..yum!
• After dinner Lauren and I decided to head off to the sunset viewing of the Angkor Wat temples.  We hopped in a 20 minute tuk tuk ride and made our way over.  When we got into the temple area it was recommended we hike up to the top of one of the temples to see the sunset from the highest point.  Unfortunately there was a line of about 800 people to get to the top of the temple, so we watched the sunset from a lower ledge although couldn’t see too much.  I spoke to a guy who did go up the temple and saw his pictures, and there weren’t even any temples out in the view!  It was just jungle.  I guess that was my first lesson in listening to the tuk tuk drivers haha!
• Lauren and I headed back to the hostel and did a yoga class for $5 where I got attacked by bugs and lizards while getting my downward dog on.
• The four of us then hit the town, back to Pub Street!  We went to a place called Banana Leaf and shared a massive jug of mojitos.  We then went to one of the many restos on the street where I tried beef Lok Lak.  I basically tried all of the Khmer food I wanted to in the first day!
• We hit the hay at 11pm as wel were waking up at 4:30 the next day to get to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

• Leaving the hostel at 5am, Lauren, Cliona, and I got into a tuk tuk which Cliona organized, and had the wost driver ever (more on that later).  i was able to squeeze my way to the front of the lake (standing in the mud, but YOLO!) to get some great photos.  We explored Angkor Wat mostly empty as it was so early, as well as Ta Phrom and another temple.  Our driver threw a hissy when we told him we didn’t want to go on the traditional ‘circuit’ and wanted to see different temples.  We had to talk to our hostel staff for him to understand, and we ended up getting to see what we wanted after about 20 minutes of arguing.
• After 8 hours of temples, we were ‘templed out’ and headed back to the hostel for lunch and a nap.  At this point Cliona left us.  Lauren and I went to the Old Market againa dn got some ice cream at the Blue Pumpkin cafe ($3 fo ice cream was robbery!  But the coconut and ginger and black sesame I got were delish!).  Then I saw a lady selling durien and I had to try it!  It was delicious and tasted like starburst.  I later found out that it wasn’t durien, but jackfruit.  My bad!
• We then walked over to the at market on our side of the river and I got a green longchamp purse and Lauren got one she had her eye on.  Pretty tired, we decided to sit down at one of the many $2 foot massage stores for half an hour.
• Lauren was leaving that night so before she left we went to a bar called Madam Beer Garden Under Construction.  I’ll let your imagination run wild with that one..seat made of bathtubs cut in half, caution tape everywhere, etc.  We had Tom Yum Martinis- spicy!  Headed back to the hostel and said bye to Lauren and agreed we’d meet up back in Sydney; she would be living in the same neighborhood as me!

• I woke up this morning and had the $2 hostel breakfast of fruits and cereals, and then headed back out to the temples.  I went and checked out Angkor Thom and the Bayan, as well as back to Angkor Wat for some better photos.

• After a couple hours I headed back to the hostel, skyped with Fitz which was fun, and headed out to a restaurant called Chan Rey, a fairly fancy place (the price sure reflected that!).  While the food was very good, I think I learned my lesson that when traveling, eating at the cheap, local places is much more delicious than the fancy places., as well as cheaper- a win win!
• From lunch I went off to La Tiger de Papier restaurant for a cooking class.  I was with 3 others and we all cooked different foods and shared in the end.  I made a green mango salad and chicken amok.  For $14, it was a bargain!  At this point i was soooo full!
• I was starting not to feel well, I think from Lauren   but I headed out to the Angkor Night Market.  Unfortunately I think it was a bit too early and not many shops were open, but I did buy some ‘same same’ t shirts, probably one of my favorite souvenirs from my travels.
• Went back to Blue Pumpkin for pineapple and kaffir lime sorbet, yum!
• Note- found goldfish in the mini mart here!!!  BONUS!!!  Went to bed fairly early as I wasn’t feeling well.

• Today I was headed out on a flight to Sihanouk-ville in the afternoon.  I slept in til about 8, snuck in a cheeky breakfast, and went back to bed until 10am.  I still wasn’t feeling too well, but I think the 12 hours of sleep I got definitely helped!
• I had some time after I checked out so I stored my bags and went and got a papaya facial 🙂  I then picked up some scarves for some cowokers to bring back as X-mas gifts from the Old Market.  One had elephants all over it, very cute.
• After my facial, feeling refreshed, I headed to Viva Mexican restaurant which many people recommended, but I found it lackluster, but coming from SoCal, I’m hard to please.  I do have to say it was nice to have a change from Khmer food.
• I then gathered my things and headed to the airport in a tuk tuk.  My flight was delayed as some Cambodian diplomat arrived on my plane, full marching band and army officials to greet her!  Finally got onto my 50 minute flight and was off to Sihanouk-ville!

Siem Reap was amazing.  I would recommend it and Siem Reap hostel to anyone I feel I spent the proper amount of time here.  the one thing I feel i missed out on was riding the free bikes at the hostel around the temples, being able to spend a day taking my time exploring.  A trip to the countryside may have been nice as well.

We arrived in Valencia from our train from Barcelona, and it took us a bit of navigating to find Home Backpackers.  Once there we were able to check in and take a nap from a day of travel.  When we woke up and after a meal at Walk to Wok, we wondered what we would do so we decided to go on a Tapas and Flamenco Show Tour.  We met our group in the Plaza de la Virgen and headed off straight to the Flamenco show.  We got a free Sangria and took our seats and watched the dancing and music and singing for about an hour.  I was quite surprised at how good the show was and I was even more surprised that Vince enjoyed it!  We then proceeded to 3 tapas bars where we got potatoes bravas, paella on baguette, and mini jamon and baguette combos and three small drinks.  We also met a few people who we later saw at the Benicassm festival and on a pub crawl in Valencia.
The next day we went on a free walking tour which was quite good, and I even got to try Horchata!  It was delicious!  I can see why our guide stayed in Valencia just for it.

Plaza de La Virgen.

Later that night we decided to go on a pub crawl to 4 different bars and a club, and one local drink we got to try was called Agua de Valencia.  Think Mimosa with rum and lots of sugar in it.  We were out until 4:30 hat night and had an early train to Benicassm the next day, oy!
When we returned from the festival we had booked another night in the same hostel and then train tickets to Granada the following day at midnight, so essentially we had another day and a half in Valencia.  The first day we had a good sleep and just relaxed, and the next day we were quite busy.  We went to the central market and spent some time there tasting cheese samples and drinking more horchata, we went into a few cathedrals and churches, and then we had a delicious and filling lunch at El Rall of Paella Valencia (with veggies chicken and rabbit vs the traditional seafood variety).  We then went for a walk through the massive park that was made from an old dried up river that runs through the city to the science center.  Here we watched an IMAX movie on the Blue Nile before heading back to the hostel to cook poor man’s dinner.
Valencia was a beautiful city and probably my favorite in Spain so far.  It was much more traditional and ‘Spanish’ than Barcelona and it had a wonderful laid-back vibe to it.

Oh goodness, an 8 day camping and music festival in the middle of the desert on the coast!  We decided to stay in Valencia an extra night an forgo a night of camping, so we got on an early morning train after staying out until 4:30 the night before.  After only an hour train ride we arrived at the camp ground with our things, exchanged out printouts for our wristbands, and headed into the chaotic camping area to try and fight for a place in the shade to block the scorching daytime sun.  We walked all the way to the back and the section diagonally left of the cold water showers, we found a spot between two trees.  With put up the tent and created a shady spot between the trees with a sheet we borrowed from our hostel.  After setting up we tried to get the bus down to the beach to check it out, but we didn’t bring enough change, so we took a walk through the town.  When we came back we met our 3 neighbors, North Irish lads who were quite friendly.
Our days during the festival consisted of being woken up around 8:30 am to extreme heat and sweat in the tent, rolling out of bed and getting the bus down to the beach.  We would stay down there, find some shady grassy spot, jump in the ocean, and try to sleep.  It was then back to the camp at around 5 pm to relax, shower, and have some dinner before having a few drinks with the Irish boys and then we were off into the music festival from about 8 until 3 or 4 in the morning.  Some of the highlights of the bands that played were the Strokes, Arcade Fire, Paulo Nutini, Friendly Fires, The Joy Formidable, and many others.  Inside the festival there were free pringles, a death ride called the Booster, and lots and lots of passed out and crazy drunk people.  There were also amazingly big and delicious brats with different sauces that we hit up twice.
It was a relaxing and fun time, but quite exhausting.   I definitely became utterly sick of salami and cheese sandwiches and breakfast bars.  The best thing was coming back to Valencia and getting to sleep in a bed again.  Luxury.  The funny thing was the Irish boys only made it to the music 2/4 nights and they would sleep under pool tables in bars during the day to escape the heat…strange.

We arrived in Pamplona on the morning of the 5^th, a day before the festival started, in order to get oriented and explore the tiny alleyways of streets.  We eventually found our way to our meeting point with Cheryl and Rosa, the people we booked our ‘apartment’ with.  After a quick orientation, Rosa took us up to our room 5 floors up in the pitch-black stairwells.  We got to our room with three beds in it and relaxed for a bit.  We were then able to get tickets to the cheaper, amateur bullfight that night.  The fight consisted of six fights, a few gorings, ad a mix of red wine and lemon fanta, our cheap version of sangria.  We also walked along the Enciero bullrun course and saw some sights.

Bullfight.

The day of the 6^th was opening day so after our rations of peanut butter sandwiches we headed out to the main square where the city hall was located with two bottles of Don Simon (self-proclaimed best sangria in the world, so you know it’s quality), our white clothes, and red scarves, and we were in the middle of the Chupinazo.  Two hours of Sangria fights, flour dusting, mosh-pit crushing crowds pushing, the festival began!  After an afternoon of drinking and meeting people, we headed for a break in the room and a much needed shower.

Just a bit stained!

That night we found an area a bit out of town where all the Spaniards set up traditional food tents.  We decided to pass on the fried sardines and took a miniature train ride.  We didn’t know where it was going, and it ended up at a Carnival!  Of course we had to walk around and we took note of the oddities of Spanish carnivals: the fastest ferris wheel of doom I’ve ever seen, games you can play to with ham legs, and an obsession with Mr. Bean.  After the carnival we started walking back up to the old town and came across the night crossing of the bulls they would use in tomorrow’s run and the bullfight.  We then finished the night up with fireworks.
We woke up early on the 7^th in order to make it to our 2^nd floor balcony to view the run on Mercaderes, right by Dead Man’s Corner.  We had to  get there early before the police cut off access with the double wall barriers.  We waited and watched hopeful runners get kicked off the course because they were too far along it, and unknowing spectators get thrown off the first barrier walk, having their hopes of even seeing the race crushed.  At 8 o’clock the rockets started firing and the bulls were off!  We watched them run, but that day there weren’t many injuries, but one of the herder bulls turned around and ran the wrong way for a while!  After all the bulls were in their pen in the ring, all of us on the balcony ran over to the arena so we could watch the last few young bulls be released into the ring to attack the runners who were crazy enough to taunt them.  After we went for some breakfast at a bakery that specially made churros, yum!  The rest of the day was similar to the previous including another trip to the carnival (this time we went on a ride), the night crossing, and fireworks.
On the 8^th, our last day, we got up extra early so I could get a spot on top of the 2^nd barrier so I could watch Vince run.  Sitting on a 1.5” wood plank for 2.5 hours with young Spaniards harassing you isn’t the easiest thing to do, but it was worth it to be one of the few to actually be able to see the run.  Even though I didn’t get to see Vince running, I got some fairly good photos.

Running of the Bulls.

After the run I ran over to the ring and got to see four of the young bulls gore the taunters.  Highlights included one jumping out of the gate over those laying in the way, running straight out and head butting one guy full-force straight on, a bunch of gorings, and a flag getting stuck on one of the bulls’ head, running around blind.  Vince and I met back up at the apartment and then went to watch the video for the day’s run.  An Italian got his sweater stuck on one of the bulls’ horns and got dragged a fair way, but ended up being alright.  We then looked at the professional photos that were taken that day, but couldn’t find any of Vince, but we did buy a newspaper for the day.  After a quick nap, we headed to a local market and picked of some rations for sandwiches and then enjoyed our last day in the chaos.  That night we went to a band playing, saw the ‘Firework Bull’ run through the streets, and our last night of fireworks.

We left our apartment before the run on the 9^th and pushed our way through the all-night drinkers and people passed out everywhere, impromptu bands, and puddles of vomit, booze and urine mixtures.  It was an amazing time but I think I need a few years to recover before going back again!